


Exhaustion

by Five_star_hellhole



Category: Cassandra Palmer Series - Karen Chance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-11
Updated: 2018-02-11
Packaged: 2019-03-17 00:15:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13647405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Five_star_hellhole/pseuds/Five_star_hellhole
Summary: A war mage’s job is never done. One shot.





	Exhaustion

He sat there, tired and waiting on his couch in semidarkness. Waiting, he mused, may not be the worst thing he has had to do lately as he brushed stubborn bits of sand off his jeans. Changing was on his list to do still but it kept sliding down the longer he sat there. He stubbornly refused to look at the bright red of the clock in the corner, time didn’t matter at the moment though knowing how late the night was getting would make the wait infinitely worse. So he stared into space, the sound of the radio lightly playing jazz at his neighbor’s adding a touch of surrealism to his quiet apartment after the day from hell he suffered through today. Thin walls were a curse in the city apartments but he couldn’t be bothered to put up a silence shield, he wasn’t sleeping yet. He was waiting. 

One song passed, then two, then a dozen. He quite liked the music to be honest, it made this time seem almost calm, helping to keep the memories of the day at bay. He slowly moved his eyes to the coffee table, his cellphone waiting silently there, daring him to walk away, to shower or sleep, to miss the text that was surely coming. If he missed it she may show up, he may be dragged back into the insanity she brought with her. He could never turn her down, part honor and part because she never did anything that was selfish. He found it hard to turn a good woman down, even if she did represent everything he was raised to correct. Order was what was meant in the world, not chaos….

He took a deep breath and laid his head back against the top of the couch and waited. The buzz broke through the facade of serenity, his blood pressure rising, old instincts rising as his eyes snapped open and he reached for the phone. It was time to update her, to update the Pythia and hope she was ready for it all. Caleb responded to her nearly incomprehensible text, tiredly and painstakingly writing it out letting her know the details of Pritkin’s incarceration in the Shadowland. He hit send and partially rose, exhaustion weighing him down, before stretching his back as he got up the rest of the way, feeling each year of his ever increasing age. He slowly walked towards the bedroom and the bed, keeping the lights off. He wasn’t going to bother with the shower, not tonight, or was it today? He didn’t care. He stretched out into the bed, sand and all, closing his eyes. The darkness wrapping around him, caccooning and relaxing him, finally letting him quit for the day. But a war mage’s job is never done he was reminded when he heard the cursed buzzing from the cell he had left in the other room, an incessant demand. A sigh escaped his lips as he peeled himself off the bed and went back to the phone. Once again he had to wait, this time for sleep.


End file.
